William Henry Squire
William Henry Squire, ARCM (8 August 1871 – 17 March 1963) was a British cellist, composer and music professor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1898, the French composer Gabriel Fauré dedicated his cello piece Sicilienne to Squire.
One of Squire's legacies is a collection of student-level works for cello and piano which appear in string teaching syllabuses all over the world including those of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the Internet Cello Society and the Suzuki method of string instrument teaching.
He was the son of John Squire, a banker and gifted amateur violinist, and his wife Emma Fisher.
[1][2][4] He made his first public appearance as a solo cellist at the age of six in the town hall at Kingsbridge in Devon where the family had moved.
[1] There, he studied cello under Edward Howell,[1][5] chamber music with Henry Holmes[3] and composition under Parry; he was also taught by both Stanford and Fred Bridge.
[3][5] His study at the Royal College was extended for a further three years and on leaving in 1889 he was elected an associate (ARCM).
[2] Squire made his debut at a chamber music concert given by Albéniz at St. James's Hall in London on 12 February 1891.
[5] On 20 April 1895 he appeared at the Crystal Palace in London to play the Saint-Saëns cello concerto in A.
[3] As a prominent member of the original Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1897 to 1901 he played in some of the earliest Henry Wood Promenade Concerts;[1][7] there he performed in some of his own compositions, for example Serenade in 1897 and pieces by other composers, for example the Andante from the cello concerto in D major Op.
It was in 1898, while at the Queen's Hall, that Fauré, impressed with Squire's mastery of French music dedicated his Sicilienne Op.
[11][13] For nine successive years in the early 20th century, Squire made frequent concert tours of the provinces as a soloist with the contralto singer Clara Butt and her husband, the baritone Kennerley Rumford.
[12] In October 1941 he made his last appearance in a public concert at the Festival of Arts in Exeter Cathedral.
In addition, Squire's portamenti have been described as "slow and unsoftened by diminuendi" [sic]; Casals's as "extremely varied and subtle".
[7] He was an adjudicator for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music submitting some of his own pieces for the syllabuses.
[6] By the late 1890s, when Squire was employed by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, he was already busy publishing a great deal of cello and piano music.
[21] Several of his pieces were premiered at London's Henry Wood Promenade Concerts with Squire himself often performing the solo cello part.
3 (Proms premiere 16 September 1897 with Squire playing cello), Danse Rustique Op.
22 (Proms premiere 10 September 1897 with Squire playing cello), Tarantella in D minor Op.
A selection of some of Squire's songs are listed below with lyricists and composition dates where known and Promenade concert dates where relevant:[9][21] "A Chip of the Old Block" [sic] (Harold Simpson 1908), "A Sergeant of the Line" (Frederic Weatherly 1909), "Beloved of Clara Butt", "The Corporal's Ditty" (Francis Barron 1906), "If I Might Only Come to You" (Frederic Weatherly 1916), "If You Were Here", "In an Old Fashioned Town" (Ada Leonora Harris 1914), "Just a Ray of Sunlight" (Mary Amoore), "Lighterman Tom" (Francis Barron 1907 – bass baritone and piano Proms premiere 28 September 1907), "Like Stars Above" (J.
[23] He played cello obligato on many vocal recordings, for example in "A Summer Night" (by Goring Thomas) sung by the contralto Louise Kirkby Lunn for His Master's Voice in 1911.
